VICE PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga has returned from China where he received medical treatment for two weeks, the presidency confirmed.

Chiwenga’s private jet hired from Dubai landed in Harare at 22.15PM on Friday, according to flight-tracking websites. The luxuriously-fitted Airbus A318-112 (CJ) Elite made a stop-over for refuelling in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after taking off from the Chinese capital, Beijing.

George Charamba, the spokesman for the presidency, confirmed that Chiwenga was back in the country.

“I haven’t seen him as yet, but I can confirm he’s back. You’d have heard that on Friday, the president appointed him chairman of the Covid-19 taskforce and that tells you he will hit the ground running,” Charamba told ZimLive by phone.

The 63-year-old Chiwenga spent the greater part of last year in hospitals in South Africa, India and China, where he received treatment for more than six months.

He told his family and friends when he returned home in December that he had been treated for esophageal stricture, the abnormal narrowing of the esophagus which causes patients difficulties in swallowing and leads to dramatic weight loss.

Before his latest trip, he had returned to China at least once since December for what Charamba described as a “routine medical check-up”.

Chiwenga is in the middle of a messy divorce from his wife, Mary, which has spilled over to the Supreme Court as the couple fight over the custody of their three young children.